How to make me hate you in less than 5 mins.....

[Amina516]

So, i guess today a bunch of spechul snowflakes were admitted today.

Sitting at the front desk after I just got there, I had several different family members approach me in the span of like 5 minutes and tell me something random. Issue is, they never tell me their room number (so I have to just guess?) and look kinda pissy when I emphasize "What ROOM is your father/wife/brother/mother in?"

I dont know who the hell these people are but I hear:

1) My mothers IV is beeping. *family walks away* (Who the HELL is your mother?!)

2) "My wife needs ice in a thing. Thanks." *ALSO walks away* (Once, again, WHO THE HELL IS YOUR WIFE) I figure out who this person is and walk in there with 2 cups of. Patient: OH I NEED MORE ICE THAN THAT.

3) "My mother wants to talk to her nurse, and i cant find her nurse."*said slightly snottily* (reasonable request...of course no mention of a room number.)
ME: And what room are you in?
Family: Oh, room 9.
Me: Ok, ill let her know. I stand up to find the appropriate nurse and I notice that he family member proceeds to walk in the exact OPPOSITE direction of room 9 and into the NEXT wing. I chase her down and let her know to please go to the nursing desk ACROSS FROM HER MOTHERS ROOM and not the one in a different unit (Which was mine). We would have no way of even knowing who was on that unit..totally different staff and all. And her mother wasnt even in room 9 on that unit either! IT WAS 2!!!

4) Call light goes off. I wander into the room and ask what they need.
Pt: I CANT TURN MY TV OFF!!!!
Me: Ok, press the green button
PT: I DONT WANT TO.
Me: Its the green button right by your finger.
PT:RARRRGGGGHH..I WANNA SLEEP
ME: *walks over and hits the green button* Would you like me to close your door?
PT:I WANT MY *MEDICATION*.
ME: You already had *MEDICATION*, i cant give you anymore.
PT: ARE YOU SURE? DID YOU GIVE ME ALL MY PILLS?
Me. I am sure. Would you like me to list everything you recieved this evening?
PT: NO! MY *MEDICATION* ONLY WORKS IF YOU TELL ME IM GETTING IT.
Me: Well....*at this point my head exploded and I left the room.*

*BONUS*This can probably be in Morons in Management but I dont feel like starting a separate post.

Now, the hospital im in has a separate unit for bariatric patients. Bigger beds, bigger rooms..just basically everything that will make the stay for a bari patient a pleasant one and give the staff everything they need to care for that patient.

I get a page that im getting a new admit and start looking up info. I see that my pt is rather large weight wise. The issue with my floor is that the beds have a 350 weight limit AND the supervisor saw fit to put this patient in a semiprivate room, which is SOOOO tiny i barely fit in there with a computer, much less a larger pt that would need to walk to the bathroom and etc.

So, I run over to the charge nurse, explain what happened and ask her to ask the supervisor to transfer him to another floor before he gets up here so that theres no delay in treating him. As im telling her this, the patient rolls up from the ER in a litter. Well, the supervisor then wants to know an EXACT weight (IDK if she was thinking we were trying to get outta work or something so we could be lying about the weight??), so I have to approach this guy, in the busy hall and try to quietly ask him for his weight b/c the ER saw fit to NOT get a weight on this guy before he came up.

AND THEN, to top it all off, we relay to the supervisor that yes, this pt needs to go to the specialty floor and NOW we have to wait for a transfer. Meanwhile, this poor patient is on a bed in the middle of the hall for almost 15 minutes! I felt terrible. There isnt a little side room to put them in and the ER couldnt take him back, so in the hall he sat. I felt so bad. His wife looked pissed and rightfully so. FINALLY, they transfer him and i wish him good luck, but WTF. We couldve saved this patient some embarrassment had someone just paid attention in the first place.

IF this dont make sense, SORRY! its 4am and I just got outta work. Sleepy times!

[LillFilly]

I can see with the cost of hospital care people probably consider themselves 'customers' and the staff their servants. And unfortunately today we seem to have no problem telling nurses & doctors what we want done; even if it's not what we need or should have ('Yeah, I want that medicine I saw on TV!").

I'm sure some of them just aren't thinking straight though, not when they or a family member's in the hospital; that makes anyone a little unreasonable I think!

I tried to be good when I was in the Hospital. Only time I got upset was before I got the pain med drip I could control, I woke-up in so much pain I was crying and couldn't breath, and crying made it worse, and nobody responded to the button so I started calling please for someone to come give me some medicine, and the nurse came in all huffy and basically scolded me and said if I didn't calm down I wasn't getting anything!

[MergedLoki]

well the hate is less than 5 min i understand completely.

There's a very good reason i'm not a nurse or in some other aspect of health care... I'd be fired in a week!

I only see patients here in D.I. for... well 5 - 45 min (usually about 10 - 15 min tops) for their xrays/other diagnostic tests etc.

and the majority of them make my brain cells explode.

I'm firmly convinced all (good) nurses have the patience of saints lol because teh ONLY thing that keeps me from saying something to idotic requests some patients/family members etc. have is teh fact that they'll be outta my dept. and back to ER (or where ever) in a few short minutes.

note: I say good nurses because while the majority of the ones i work with daily (or nightly in my case :P) in ER and ICU are really great with me, with their patients etc. I see a good chunk during the days (when i work days, which is rare usually when co-workers call in sick etc.) that are clearly in it for the money and/or they just dont give a damn about anyone but themselves... which is a shame.

[seigus]

PT: NO! MY *MEDICATION* ONLY WORKS IF YOU TELL ME IM GETTING IT.

BWAH-HAHAHAHA!
Um, I mean, perhaps the hospital could save a few dollars by giving this patient placebos.

[Ellain]

In the hospital where my husband works, there is a guy who came in weighing 1100 pounds. After a few weeks of care, he's down to 700 some. It blew my mind.

[Amina516]

I can see with the cost of hospital care people probably consider themselves 'customers' and the staff their servants. And unfortunately today we seem to have no problem telling nurses & doctors what we want done; even if it's not what we need or should have ('Yeah, I want that medicine I saw on TV!").

I'm sure some of them just aren't thinking straight though, not when they or a family member's in the hospital; that makes anyone a little unreasonable I think!

I tried to be good when I was in the Hospital. Only time I got upset was before I got the pain med drip I could control, I woke-up in so much pain I was crying and couldn't breath, and crying made it worse, and nobody responded to the button so I started calling please for someone to come give me some medicine, and the nurse came in all huffy and basically scolded me and said if I didn't calm down I wasn't getting anything!

I have no issue with people telling me what they want/need...the issue is HOW they ask or approach me. If you act like a normal person with manners, i have no issue bending over backwards to make sure Im doing all that I can to be sure youre pain free or all your questions are answered and you understand the plan of care from this point etc.

However, demand shit from me and then i start not to like you. Not that I would provide subpar healthcare for anyone, but I wont do it with a smile and you will get the bare minimum (and guess what? I dont get paid to smile so it dont matter!! lol). Treat me like a person is what it boils down to.

The nurse in your story however sounds like an ass. I would never scold a patient for being in pain. Thats ridiculous. Sounds like she may have been powertripping.

I only see patients here in D.I. for... well 5 - 45 min (usually about 10 - 15 min tops) for their xrays/other diagnostic tests etc.

and the majority of them make my brain cells explode.

This is exactly why i miss the Opertating room where i worked for almost 7 years..

Patients came in, were conscious for all of about 5 minutes, then were sleepy bye byes and i would get to work. lol

[protege]

note: I say good nurses because while the majority of the ones i work with daily (or nightly in my case :P) in ER and ICU are really great with me, with their patients etc. I see a good chunk during the days (when i work days, which is rare usually when co-workers call in sick etc.) that are clearly in it for the money and/or they just dont give a damn about anyone but themselves... which is a shame.

Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more common. Locally, quite a few nurses are in it simply for the money...and/or hate the job. At least if I'm in the hospital...they tend to kiss my ass. Gotta love having a mother who is a supervisor with the county health department. I'm not rude to them, but if they cop an attitude, she'll go Gestapo on their ass, and probably get them into trouble

[NotSoInnocent]

I was so lucky this past July. I went into the ER with a swelling throat/sinus/neck/face, with serious throat pain (let's just say that I looked red, raw, swollen and ugly) and was admitted to the surgical floor because they were thinking that I'd have to have throat surgery. (Which I did end up having... hello, tonsillectomy!)

The pain was -intense-. We're talking "I've-given-birth-to-large-babies-without-pain-meds-and-this-is-worse" sort of pain.

Unfortunately, I have a rather bad reaction to codine-based pain meds, so they set me up with morphine-based meds instead. Keep in mind that I'm sensitive to most pain meds (as in "wow! you mean that a single tab of bennedryl really -does- knock some people out?")... The usual dose for this particular medication is 2mg every 4-6 hours. I was getting 0.5mg every 3 and doing fine.

I couldn't talk because my throat was so swollen, but I brought a nifty little dry-erase board. My nurses thought I was a hoot! Seriously. All it took was some twisted humor, a messed up grin, a dry-erase board to write funny stuff on and I had an entire floor of nurses tromping in and out to chat with me and make sure that my pain meds were working right.

Even the night shift got in on the fun... mostly because I also have insomnia and couldn't sleep longer than 20-30 minutes at a time right after getting my dose of meds.

Moral of the story? Be nice to your nurses! They'll help you more than your doc will... and they've usually got awesome stories and jokes to share.

[dalesys]

Did they try to pull the Big Lie on you?

"You get to have ALL the ice cream you can eat!" (Bill Cosby)

[AriRashkae]

I did! Drove my little brother crazy.

Of course, it sucked because naturally that's when I started craving Triscuits.